- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 24 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 7 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether Glasgow gets a "fair deal" in terms of the allocation of resources.
Answer
The budget of the Scottish Executive is allocated fairly across Scotland. Financial plans for 2000-01 include:
£914 million allocated to Glasgow Health Board;£830 million local authority grant to Glasgow City Council;£51 million for Glasgow Development Agency;£45 million local authority gross non housing capital allocation.
- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 24 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 7 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make a statement on the current plans for the Abbotsholm Business Park.
Answer
This is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise. I will ask the Chairman of that organisation to write to Mr Gibson.
- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 24 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Henry McLeish on 7 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive why the number of new business start ups in Scotland dropped to their lowest level in five years in the third quarter of 1999 and what plans it has to reverse this decline.
Answer
The level of new business start-ups in Scotland is determined by a range of factors, including the overall state of the Scottish and UK economies. The quarterly GDP statistics indicate that the Scottish economy experienced a modest slowdown in the rates of GDP growth over the first half of 1999, along with UK and other European economies. However, the most recent economic indicators are favourable and the latest forecasts suggest that growth in Scotland will accelerate from 2000 in line with the UK.We also have a number of specific initiatives in hand to increase the number of start-up businesses assisted by the enterprise network, and to improve the quality and consistency of advice and support for small businesses across Scotland. We will announce details of these improvements shortly.
- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Iain Gray on 7 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting time is for nursing home placements in each local authority for which figures are available and what plans it has for reducing waiting times.
Answer
The information requested is not available on a consistent basis. We are taking a range of initiatives which should reduce waiting times. Central to these is the drive for local agencies to work together to improve services as envisaged in Modernising Community Care: an Action Plan. Incentive funding to encourage implementation will increase from £5 million this year to £7.5 million in 2000-2001. The Joint Future Group, which I will chair, will aim to strengthen joint working.
- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 December 1999
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 7 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how many joint committees between itself and Her Majesty's Government are proposed; who their members and convenors will be; where and how often they will meet; what the remit of each committee will be, and whether they will deliberate in public.
Answer
The Joint Ministerial Committee will bring together Ministers from the UK Government and the three devolved administrations. The remit and structure of the JMC are set out in Annex A of the
Memorandum of Understanding.JMC (Poverty) covers issues on child poverty and pensioner poverty and JMC (Knowledge Economy) will consider joint action on information technology in education and industry. Both will be chaired by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. JMC (EU) covers European Union issues and will be chaired by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth AffairsMinisters of the devolved administrations and the territorial Secretaries of State will be members of the Committees as well as relevant UK Ministers. It will be for the Committee members to decide where and how often the Committees will meet.Paragraph A1.11 of the Memorandum of Understanding provides that "the proceedings of each meeting of the JMC will be regarded as confidential by the participants, in order to permit free and candid discussion. However, the holding of JMC meetings will be made known publicly and there may be occasions on which the Committee will wish to issue a public statement on the outcome of its discussions."
- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 07 December 1999
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 7 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive to specify its efficiency savings target for each of the NHS Trusts in Glasgow this year and how it anticipates those savings will be achieved.
Answer
The Scottish Executive does not set specific efficiency savings targets for health boards or NHS Trusts. Boards and Trusts are expected to supplement the substantial real terms increase in resources they received this year by improving the efficiency with which they deliver services. All the savings generated in this way are re-invested locally in health service developments.
- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 December 1999
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 4 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the local authority funding shortfalls identified by CoSLA "will all require to be absorbed by councils either by further reductions in services, staffing levels or, alternatively, increases in council tax", as stated by CoSLA in convention item 4 on 10 December 1999, and, if not, why not.
Answer
Local government spending is set to rise to £6,746 million, an increase of 3.7% over the comparable figure this year and higher than the forecast increase in the RPI. It is a matter for the local authorities themselves to determine their expenditure priorities and set their budgets and council tax levels accordingly.
- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 December 1999
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 4 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it accepts the figures on local authority revenue spending shortfalls for 2000-01 detailed by CoSLA in convention item 4 approved on 10 December 1999 and, if not, why not.
Answer
The finance consultation document Spending Plans for Scotland invited views on our spending proposals for the next two years. Inevitably the spending plans for local government have to strike a balance between affordability and the requirements of other services for which the Scottish Executive is responsible. However, overall our spending plans provide for the most generous local government settlement for seven years, with spending set to rise by 4.8% this year, 3.7% in 2000-01 and 3.6% in 2001-02, higher than the forecast rate of inflation.
- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 4 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has for introducing Health Action Zones.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has no such plans. The broad strategy for improving health in Scotland was set out in the White Paper Towards a Healthier Scotland, the principles of which were endorsed by the Scottish Parliament last September.
- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 4 February 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how many ambulance paramedics were trained in each of 1996-97, 1997-98 and 1998-99.
Answer
The information requested is as follows:
| 1996-97 | 88 |
| 1997-98 | 103 |
| 1998-99 | 80 |
In determining its future training requirements the Scottish Ambulance Service continues to have regard to its objective of having a paramedic on every front-line accident and emergency ambulance.
